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Book review: Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

Published on March 20, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, books, history, language

Martin Jacques, The Guardian

There are many ways of recounting the history of the world – via the rise and fall of civilisations, the fortunes of nation states, socio-economic systems and patterns, the development of technology, or the chronology of war and military prowess. This book tells the story through the rise and decline of languages. It is a compelling read, one of the most interesting books I have read in a long while.

Nicholas Ostler does not adopt a narrowly linguistic approach – based on the structure of languages and their evolution – but instead looks at the history of languages, the reasons for their rise and, as a rule, also their fall. While it is a history of languages, it is at the same time a history of the cultures and civilisations from which they sprang. >> continue

(via Arts & Letters Daily)

Martin Jacques, The Guardian

There are many ways of recounting the history of the world - via the rise and fall of civilisations, the fortunes of nation states, socio-economic systems and patterns, the development of technology, or the chronology of war…

First Swahili PC office suite released in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Published on March 8, 2005 by lorenz Posted in Africa, anthropology in the news, language, technology

Wikinews

The office suite was translated from the English version of OpenOffice.org, an open source suite based on Sun Microsystems’ StarOffice. This is the first ever release of a word processor in Swahili. The translation effort required translating 18,000 English strings, made up of one or more words, many of which have previously had no direct Swahili equivalent. As part of the translation, the team developed a glossary of 1500 technical words in Swahili. >> continue

Wikinews

The office suite was translated from the English version of OpenOffice.org, an open source suite based on Sun Microsystems' StarOffice. This is the first ever release of a word processor in Swahili. The translation effort required translating 18,000 English strings,…

Knowledge Fades As Africa Languages Die

Published on March 6, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, culture traditions, language

Sun-Sentinel / AP

A U.N. Conference on Trade and Development report on protecting traditional knowledge argues that beyond a devastating impact on culture, the death of a language wipes out centuries of know-how in preserving ecosystems — leading to grave consequences for biodiversity. >> continue

Sun-Sentinel / AP

UPDATED – The future lies behind: How languages reflect our conception of time

Published on February 27, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, indigenous people / minorities, language, Latin- and Central America, media, Native American

Laura Spinney, The Guardian

For the Aymara people living in the Andes, the past lies ahead and the future lies behind. The Aymara word for past is transcribed as nayra , which literally means eye, sight or front. The word for future is q”ipa , which translates as behind or the back. Over the years, rumours have surfaced of similar strangeness in other languages.

The researcher is Rafael Núñez, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego. With his collaborator, linguist Eve Sweetser, he will publish his findings later this year.

“This Aymara finding is big news,” says Vyvyan Evans, a theoretical cognitive linguist at the University of Sussex. “It is the first really well-documented example of the future and past being structured in a totally different way from lots of other languages, including English.” >> continue

UPDATE (28.2.05):
Anthropologist Kerim Friedman writes “I can’t understand the fuss being made over the Aymara people living in the Andes who supposedly have a unique spacial conception of time. My guess is that this is simply another example of reporters mangling academic research in order to make the story more exciting.” >> continue

Laura Spinney, The Guardian

Dissertation in Anthropology put online before it will be published as a book

Published on February 22, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, Asia, language, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Anthropologist P. Kerim Friedman (Temple University) published his dissertation on the web before it will be published as a book! “No need to wait for the book”, he writes. In an earlier post, Friedman encouraged anthropologists to use the Internet to share their knowledge and support the “Open Access” – philosophy.

About his dissertation he writes:

“This dissertation examines contemporary linguistic markets and language policy in Taiwan in terms of the historical processes of state formation, class alliances, and identity politics, drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of linguistic markets and Antonio Gramsci’s theory of hegemony as well as the literature on nationalism and linguistic ideology.

Emphasis is placed on the historical processes underlying the construction of Taiwan’s linguistic markets as Taiwan’s linguistic nationalism emerged throughout history, focusing on the continuities and changes across Qing, Japanese, KMT and DPP rule.

>> continue

Anthropologist P. Kerim Friedman (Temple University) published his dissertation on the web before it will be published as a book! "No need to wait for the book", he writes. In an earlier post, Friedman encouraged anthropologists to use the Internet…